Ramgarh: Ashok Sao, a hotelier of Banda village under Gola police station of
Ramgarh district, heaved a sigh of relief on Sunday when police told him that his son Saurabh Kumar, a class X student, was not abducted as believed earlier but had gone to watch the
IPL match in Mumbai.
Sao alerted the police on Friday after villagers found Saurabh’s scooter abandoned in a forest near the Rajrappa temple on Thursday. Saurabh, a student of DAV Public School, was on his way home from school, when he disappeared. The hotelier had been under a lot of stress recently after suspected rebels warned him of dire consequences through posters pasted in hotel if he did not heed to their extortion demands.
Police immediately lodged an FIR and started a massive search operation. They soon started tracking his mobile phone and traced it to Madhya Pradesh. The district police headquarters started having doubts on the
abduction theory as no ransom demand was made but formed a team and send it to Madhya Pradesh to recover the boy. However, the boy’s mobile phone location changed gradually and the team finally found the boy in Mumbai.
According to police, Saurabh is an ardent fan of star cricketer M S Dhoni and he did not want to miss the opportunity of watching him play at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. He, however, knew that he would not get permission to go Mumbai, so, he secretly left while returning home from school, abandoning his scooter.
Ramgarh superintendent of police A Vijayalakshmi told TOI that boy has been found from Mumbai. “It’s not a case of abduction and the boy went to Mumbai by staging his own abduction,” she said.
The team with Saurabh is likely to reach Ramgarh on Monday, police said, adding that his statement will be recorded once he is in town.
File photo of Saurabh Kumar who staged his own kidnapping
